By David Ware
March 5, 2022
Both Democrats and Republicans inside the DC Beltway seem to be hell-bent on bringing about World War III. But, this is not a video game where at the end, you just hit reset and get a new life. Real nukes kill people and destroy the lives of countless others.
Perhaps you have seen the 1959 movie On the Beach or the 2000 remake. It’s about the aftermath of World War III as for a short period, Australia remains the only haven on the planet where radiation has not yet contaminated the land and destroyed the society. But inevitably, nowhere on Earth is immune and eventually those who thought they were too far away from the conflict suffered the same fate as the rest of humankind.
This lesson isn’t just about Australia. It’s about people everywhere in the world who think that a nuke someplace else will not impact them where they are. Nothing could be more wrong and farther from the truth.
I expect that most of you reading this have heard of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug 6, 1945 – Aug 9, 1945 respectively. Those of us baby boomers who grew up in the aftermath of World War II should have learned our lesson that we must never reach the point where a nuclear attack is the last resort. Unfortunately, many of those of my generation around the world who currently wield power did not internalize that lesson adequately.
“The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. The U.S. conducted 23 of these tests at Bikini Atoll, and 44 near Enewetak Atoll, but fallout spread throughout the Marshall Islands.”
Did you ever wonder where the word bikini, referring to a tiny little bathing suit, originated? Bikini Atoll was not named after the swimsuit. It was the other way around. A French designer had some kind of perverted notion that he wanted an atomic image to the nearly nude female body.
Those of us growing up in America in the 1950s may have rather idyllic notions of life in that era, in a day and age when we didn’t have instantaneous electronic communication and pictures of horrific acts far away, even those perpetrated by our own government.
In the Pacific Basin, while America was bombing innocent people in the Marshall Islands, France was conducting nuclear tests on French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996. About 110,000 people have been affected by radioactive fallout.
During the same epoch in history, those who were alive back then may have heard about nuclear tests going on underground in the Nevada desert. The ground could be felt shaking in Las Vegas between late May and early October 1957.
We think of President Dwight Eisenhower as the five-star general who was responsible for the landing at Normandy and the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, as well as ending the conflict on the Korean peninsula. He was in office during this time that these nuclear tests were being conducted in Nevada and the Marshall Islands. So, they will forever remain part of his legacy as well as his heroic acts during previous wars.
Note that the Marshall Islands were part of what was called the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands. It’s quite obvious that trust was betrayed. Marshallese men, women and children were used as guinea pigs … or perhaps rather considered as non-entities. Maybe even as collateral damage. But their lives and livelihoods were not a deterrent to the mushroom clouds that destroyed their small islands.
None of them knew what was happening. In these tropical Islands, some actually thought perhaps it was snowfall because they had never seen it before. It must be said that members of the United States military were also affected who observed these nuclear explosions.
I was a teenager during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I must admit that I was not aware of all these nuclear tests going on in the Marshall Islands. I do recall hearing about the underground tests in Nevada. Americans were basically oblivious to the destruction that was happening in the Pacific as America carelessly and wantonly set off nukes in a place that was inhabited by unsuspecting innocent victims who were told that they should trust us to look out for their well-being.
I won’t go into the names of all the small atolls that were destroyed. Some were evacuated and residents prematurely allowed to return only to find that the contamination remained. Many descendants are still in the United States unable to return to their original home atolls which are now still uninhabitable.
In my career as a U.S. Customs Inspector, I clearly recall examining a cargo shipment arriving in Hawaii at Hickam Air Force Base from Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It was clearly marked as hazardous material consisting of radioactive waste. Customs Inspectors are given discretion over which shipments to clear without a physical examination. I can assure you that one was cleared without my physically examining it! I don’t remember the exact date but that was probably at least 40 years ago.
So, now I have a particularly intense aversion to all the cavalier talk about confronting Russia in Ukraine.
The United States had an important role to play in deterrence, which was not fulfilled by the current administration in Washington DC. At this point, the involvement of the United States and NATO into direct confrontation with Russian forces and their surrogates from Belarus could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.
Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. But he isn’t totally stupid. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction [M.A.D.] does apply with current day Russia just as it did with the former Soviet Union, in which he played a vital part as a KGB officer.
But to back him into a corner with no way out could cause him to do anything necessary as a last resort. One never knows when a maniacal tyrant could say: If I’m going down, I will take the world with me. Vladimir Putin, in control of the Soviet … excuse me, Russian … arsenal, literally has that ability at this point to wipe out humanity before all of you smart-mouth politicians in Washington DC realize what your unwise statements and actions have caused.
He could even consider a United States Senator calling for his assassination to be an Act of War. Right now, the United States will find that Vladimir Putin is less likely to attack us than are China, Iran, North Korea or a myriad of non-state actors.
I have previously written:
America’s Western Pacific Flank Is Vulnerable While You Are Being Distracted By Ukraine https://authordavidware.wordpress.com/2022/02/24/americas-western-pacific-flank-is-vulnerable-while-you-are-being-distracted-by-ukraine/
Europe has ceased being a dependable American ally long ago. Europe must stand up for Europe and defend Europe. The United States cannot be the world’s policeman. Too much American blood has been spilled for ungrateful countries such as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
There is credible evidence that Ukraine has elements that are training white supremacists from the United States. Their leader is propped up by the likes of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, George Soros and corrupt American politicians with surnames such as Biden, Obama and Clinton, American oligarchs who are petrified that their dirty secrets will be exposed by either Ukraine or Russia.
This is not altruism on their part. It is a dangerous game of nuclear brinksmanship. Don’t let your Republicans in Congress fall prey to this false flag operation. Didn’t we learn anything on January 6th, 2021 about being set up?
Take down those Ukrainian flags and proudly fly the Stars and Stripes forever!
Let us all soberly look at what nuclear war really is. I personally don’t watch those post-apocalyptic movies. But life as we know it will cease to exist if you push Vladimir Putin into pushing that red button. Continue to embarrass and humiliate him, and then see if he feels that nukes are the only way to retaliate.
Better yet, don’t!
Marshallese people whom you’ve never heard of were betrayed. They trusted America and America nuked them. So don’t tell me how righteous it is to risk subjecting the world to what they experienced all because you’re caught up in this sensationalistic hyperventilating about coming to the defense of Ukraine.
You’re not doing the people of Ukraine a favor if you start World War III with them at the epicenter. Wiser minds and cooler temperaments need to prevail in Washington DC very soon.
Our nation’s capital is twice the distance from Honolulu as is Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It is our honor and privilege to have Marshallese and other Micronesians living here with us in Hawaii. We would be better off listening as they tell us about the horrors of nuclear blasts than we would be in this irrational war-mongering over Ukraine.
Incumbent Republican politicians all across America are being challenged in primaries by true conservatives. We need men and women of principle in elected office to replace those who are part of the two-party elite.
We need to stand up now and proclaim our opposition to this belligerence and cavalier attitude toward nuclear war that threatens human existence on this planet.
Don’t allow yourselves to be sucked into this pre-engineered panic over Ukraine, which was designed by the same people who imposed the restrictions in the name of covid, which has now suddenly dropped out of the news, yielding to a new threat du jour. In the previous iteration, you yielded your liberties without a fight. If you let them start a nuclear war, you will be yielding your very lives.
The biggest difference between a nuclear attack and a biological attack is the speed and comprehensiveness in which it claims its victims. Nuclear contamination, radioactivity, is irreversible.
Covid restrictions can be repealed for political purposes in an election year. Blowing up the world is quite final!
Author David Ware 
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